Samenvatting

The invention of the internet has created enormous opportunities for businesses: the ease of distributing information via the internet eventually led to online trade, a concept which is now known as Electronic Commerce. Whilst Electronic-, or E-Commerce has made it
easier for companies to make their products available to a wider audience, they still face the challenge of getting the right information across to the right public, especially when different cultures are targeted. As stated by Hofstede (1998) "As global competition increases, companies are faced with the challenge of offering their products or services to a wider global audience."
All aspects of the interface of a website (colours used, general layout, symbols) have an influence on a user's experience, and therefore behaviour on a website. According to Han & Shavitt (1994); Hofstede (1998); Triandis (1995) and Zandpour & Harich (1996), as cited in Ferreira (2003) "People rely on different types of information to make decisions, and culture has an influence on the type of information people depend upon." This research makes use of cultural models, user experience techniques and a quantitative research to identify whether culture has an influence on user preferences relating to the User Interface of a commercial website and, if so whether these preferences have an effect on consumer behaviour.